Pulp of the Week - Doc Savage #1

March 1933 - The Man of Bronze

It may be apparent that I am a fan of the Doc Savage character and the series of super-sagas originally published from March 1933 to Summer 1949. 181 issues. That is not a record for pulp characters (the Shadow ran for 325 issues) but that is a lot of stories featuring one character.

Recently I realized that I had not read a Doc Savage novel since, well, before many of you were born. I couldn't remember how far in the series I had read in my youth (book 70ish), so I decided to begin again with the first issue. If I read one a month, I should be able to finish them all in 16 years or so...




Clark Savage, Jr. was created by the publishers of The Shadow working with writer Lester Dent. The Shadow was a big hit and they were looking to create another. Doc was designed to be an unabashed good guy. Created in the Great Depression, Doc symbolized the hopes and dreams of many young men. He was smart, handsome, strong, fast, and rich. On the covers of the original pulps, Clark Gable was the visual inspiration for Doc.

Doc is considered by many to be the first super-hero. He is superhuman; but just barely. He is a little faster, stronger, and smarter than almost anyone else. His courage and confidence are unmatched.

One of the things that I really like about this story is that even though this is the first issue of a 181 episode series, there isn't a lot of exposition. The components for the series are already there. The characters have a life together, a history. Doc and the fantastic five, his group of friends from the Great War, are already a team. Clark Savage, Jr. is already Doc Savage. He and his friends already have deep bonds.

Doc's father was responsible for the offices on the 86th floor of an unnamed building in Manhattan. Doc and his friends have already had a number of adventures. However, in this first story, they become the group dedicating their lives to Doc and his mission. We could do far worse than to live by his ideals.

The Doc Savage Motto

"Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.
Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice.
Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage.
Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do.
Let me do right to all, and wrong no man."

This first issue is where the never-ending battle begins. This is where Doc steps out of the shadow of his famous father and onto the path he has trained his whole life to walk. He has performed a daily training regimen his whole life; two hours of grueling isometrics, mental exercises, and sensory challenges.

This first novel in the Doc Savage saga sets up the series nicely. Doc arrives in New York to meet with Clark Savage, Sr, his father. He arrives too late; his globetrotting adventurer father has been killed by mysterious means and a sniper-rifle toting Mayan means to kill Clark, Jr. next.

There is a terrific chase in the scaffolding of a skyscraper under construction that leads out onto the streets of Manhattan. Then we witness a taste of the scientific methods Savage employs. Clark's father has left a mysterious note (visible only by ultraviolet light) and some papers giving young Savage title to some Central America land in the small republic of Hidalgo.

Savage and his men travel via one of Savage's private planes:
"The approximately 900 mile flight to Miami they made in something more than 5 hours, thanks to the tremendous speed of Doc's superplane."

Doc and his men travel to Hidalgo, a small Central America republic. Here Clark seeks out the answers to his fathers mysterious legacy in a secret valley. Hidden by savage terrain, accessible only by air, the Valley of the Vanished holds all the secrets Doc is seeking.

I had forgotten just how good Lester Dent's writing is. Doc is not an emotionless automaton, a man without feeling. Rather, he is a man of morals and high ideals. He deals with logic to solve his problems, but shows a bit of emotion, too. He embraces adventure, accepting the danger but using everything in his power to mitigate that danger. He is not without feelings or attraction to the ladies; but he knows how dangerous his work is and chooses to avoid romance.

This first yarn is full of exciting scenes. Doc and his men chase a Mayan assassin up the scaffolding at the very top of the Empire State Building. A beach side shootout with a sniper shooting holes in the pontoons of Doc's plane. There are chases and deadly traps and escapes from certain death. We meet the good Mayan King Chaac and his lovely daughter Princess Monja who has eyes for Clark, Jr. There is a surprising amount of story for a 120 page novel. Mind you, this is not Pulitzer winning prose, it is Pulp at its finest. The characterization is not deep, but we start to see who these people are.

I am so glad I decided to start at the beginning because there is so much I had forgotten from reading this in my teens.

For this review I read my copy of the Bantam paperback - 7th printing circa 1973. For some unknown reason, the Bantam paperbacks and the 2-in-1 reprints do not follow the original publication order. I would recommend reading the stories in their published order.

I highly recommend the Doc Savage stories. You can find the reprints from Nostalgia Ventures at Barnes and Noble or at Ebay and used book shops all over the internet. On Nostalgia Ventures online store they are having a special deal where they will send you 1 (random) slightly blemished issue for the cost of shipping.

The Nostalgia Ventures Reprint Front and back cover of Issue #14 (containing Pulp issues #1 and #2).

I have also recently discovered a fun gallery of Custom Doc Savage Bantam Paperback Covers by Keith at Monsterverse. Here are a few of my favorites:










© 2009 W. Peter Miller

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Complete Moeller's Hermetics

Here is the Beta version of the complete Hermetic Faction. Please let me know your thoughts here or on my thread at the official FFG Tannhäuser boards.

Moeller's Hermetics

When playing with additional factions on the Operation Tannhäuser and Novgorod maps you will need additional entry spaces. The awesome littlewars presented us with the perfect solution; an entry token. Just print out a couple of these and put them in a corner of the board and go to town. Or you could print out one of the cool custom maps available here and here. My huge outdoor map has 4 entry points already. The Daedalus map also has 4 entry points.

There are 2 options for Lady Furstenstein. You may choose either one, but not both. The Rustung Fallhammer and the M.U.R.08 are considered the Troops in this faction.

After printing out all the stuff linked here, to play the Hermetics faction you will need the following figures:

Doktor Moeller - 1x Bonded Fire Summoner UNCOMMON #10 - Dungeons & Dragons - War of the Dragon Queen


Lady Furstenstein - 1x Magdalena - Indy Heroclix
OR
Lady Furstenstein - 1x Doomguard COMMON #47 - D&D Minis - Blood War


Jackal - 1x Human Blaster-for-Hire COMMON #35 - Star Wars Miniatures - Bounty Hunters
Jackal's Hyenas - 2x Hunting Hyena COMMON #47 - D&D Minis - War of the Dragon Queen

M.U.R.08 - 1x E522 Assassin Droid UNCOMMON #31- Star Wars Minis -Bounty Hunters


Rustung Fallhammer - 3x War Ape COMMON #22 - D&D Minis - War of the Dragon Queen



DOKTOR KRISZTOV MOELLER





Lady Furstenstein (Katana)





Lady Furstenstein (Twin Daggers)


Matthaus Lang 'Jackal'




Jackal's Hyenas


M.U.R.08








Rustung Fallhammer






So there they are. If you try them out, please let me know what you thought of them.

Next Week - Savage Tales is on vacation...






I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!



© 2008 Peter Miller

My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. All Rights Reserved.

FIGHT KLUB FRIDAY - ON SALE SOON!!!

Decipher Games has announced that over the weekend the existing Fight Klub site will be going away. The new site will be having a pre-launch starting as early as Sunday for the Founding Mentors who will have a few days to post content to the site and get their Mentor Profiles up. If the site proves stable and ready to go, it could be as soon as late next week for the site to go live for everyone.

This means that (hopefully) by New Years the new FIGHT KLUB will open and we will be able to buy cards!!!


To access the site you will be asked who invited you. That person is your Mentor. When you get to the door that asks "Who Sent You?", you say Spike.


Well not right now, but soon. Real soon. Believe me, I'll let you know. Even if it isn't a Friday.

If you buy any cards for the game (available EXCLUSIVELY on the Fight Klub site) your Mentor gets 10% of what you spend :). Once in the game, you can be a mentor for your friends and get 10% of what they spend.


In order to post content to the site you have to have to be a member of the site. That includes providing your credit card information.

Besides being able to buy product, Decipher will have actual information on the identity of the users of the site. That could be a positive to reduce trolling and spamming on the boards. Because if you are a fan of the game and get banned, you won't have direct access to the game anymore.

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Daedalus and Field Ops Arrive

12.17.08 - UPDATE - see notes in RED

Daedalus

Yes, it is true. The newest Tannhäuser expansion is out. I got mine yesterday and had to interrupt my planned complete Moeller's Hermetics posting. That will have to be next time.

I tore open the shipping box and got out out my camera. As you will see, the map is beautiful, the tokens are plentiful and the scenarios are... well they're in french.

The Daedalus package, when still sealed in the shrink wrap reminds me of cracking open a 2 LP set more than anything. When you open it up here is what you get in the Daedalus expansion pack. A 2-sided map board (complete with a mostly useless base set catacombs), a boat load of tokens, and a booklet (in french) describing the tokens and scenarios.

There are MANY more pictures at the Savage Tales Gallery on Shutterfly.

Daedalus

Malechi's favorite feature of Daedalus

The new map has 4 entry points on it! That is awesome. It also has some new symbols on it.

This first one, the person in the red No symbol is a Prohibited Space. You can move through this space, but you can't stop there.


The next one is a mechanical horizontal elevator that you can summon, get in, and move around the board in. I am still trying to decipher the exact rules...


There are these green arrows on the map as well. I am not sure exactly what they are for.

As Matt has surmised in his comment, these are indeed one way circles. Your character can only pass through these in one direction. Once you step in you can only exit in the indicated direction.

Some of the circles are partly off the board.


The Daedelus pack stuff fits into the main Tannhäuser box just fine. The new map is really nice and I am looking forward to playing on it. Since we do not yet have Novgorod, at least I can play scenarios that link the castle with the catacombs.

Tannhäuser Field Ops

Field Ops is an interesting game, joining Wings of War and Battleground as card-based tabletop miniatures games. Field Ops has Characters and Troops and their equipment. It also has Terrain and Structures. The Character Cards themselves are pushed around the table to position the troops for battle. If the cards touch, they can go at it Hand-to-Hand.



Here are the contents of the box. You can see the back of the rulebook, the unpunched token and counters sheet, dice, and two Command Posts. The Command Posts are used to track damage and to assign orders for each turn. As in Heroscape the orders are secret. The Command Posts are cardstock and a bit flimsy, and could be dented easily. They nest inside each other to fit in the box. If I enjoy the game I will figure out something to make them sturdier.


While the production value of the art work and design cards is top notch, all the cards have a burr that is right in the middle of the top and bottom edges. Since the cards are physically pushed aroung the table, I put my cards in sleeves right after taking these pictures.

Reich Card Backs

Union Card Backs

Wolf also has his own set of cards you can see at the Savage Tales Gallery.

The Heros of the Union

Hoax's powers

Sergeant Drake Harrison's powers. Hmmm Sgt. Drake... That has a familiar ring to it... I'm surprised he doesn't have a grapple gun...

Some Heroes of the Reich

Freya Von Karloff's powers.

Behemouth Cards

Some Battlefield condition and structure cards.


There are MANY more pictures (almost, if not every card) at the Savage Tales Gallery on Shutterfly.

Daedalus and Field Ops are going to take a serious effort to translate to English. Give the speed that FFG is releasing this, I am looking forward to a year or two of play before the FFG version comes out. People interested in helping the translation effort should chime in here, or at the FFG boards.

These games were easy enough to order from Ludibay, and they take credit cards and PayPal. I got my games quickly, but the shipping wasn't cheap... Of course they have had Novgorod and Georgi and Ramirez for a year.

I will follow up with playing reports as they happen.



I FEEL U-CHRONIC!!!





© 2008 Peter Miller


My custom additions to Tannhäuser are not created by, distributed, or endorsed by Take on You, Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight. Tannhäuser and all related characters are trademarks of Take on You and © Take on You LTD. All Rights Reserved.

Pulp of the Week - High Adventure #100

High Adventure Magazine #100

This is the first issue of High Adventure that I have read, despite its 17 year history. I don't know how I missed it all this time; perhaps my recently renewed interest in pulps finally forced me to notice John Gunnison's terrific pulp reprint magazine from Adventure House.

Mr. Gunnison went all out in the 100th issue, with 11 adventure tales by some of the best writers in pulp. I don't know how many different fiction magazines were being published during the pulp era, but Gunnison draws from 10 of them in 7 genres for this issue. In the back of the magazine is a list of all the stories published in the first hundred issues of High Adventure. I will have to get my hands on some of those issues. They are full of adventures unread...

My favorite stories were:

Shanghaied Mitts by Robert E. Howard (writing as Mark Adam) originally published in the Summer 1939 issue of Fight Stories. Howard has such a gift of character and dialect. This is the story of a tough brawling sailor that is shanghaied out of a bar in rural costal Mexico. He is convinced (given no choice) by the cowboys that kidnapped him to fight their miner rivals champion.

An excerpt:
At that I gave a roar of rage and heaved up, upsetting the table and a couple of cow-hands. "You low-down land-sharks," I roared. "You doped my grog!" "Grab him boys!" yelled Slim, and three or four nabbed me. But I throwed 'em off like chaff and caught Slim on the chin with a clout that sprawled him on the back of his neck. I socked Red on the nose and it smashed like a tomater, and at this instant Pete belted me over the head with a gun-barrel. With a maddened howl, I turned on him, and he gasped, turned pale and dropped the gun for some reason or other. I sunk my left mauler to the wrist in his midriff, and about that time six or seven of them cow-punchers jumped on my neck and throwed me by sheer weight of manpower. I got Yuma's thumb in my mouth and nearly chawed it off, but they managed to sling some ropes on me, and the drug, from which I was already weak and groggy, took full effect about this time and I passed clean out.

The Lost Legionnaire by Norman Daniels originally published in the December 1938 issue of 12 Adventure Stories. In this tale of the French foreign legion fighting in North Africa, a young amnesiac American comes under suspicion of being a spy. Who he was or where he came from, he cannot remember. But clearly, he was a soldier. They call him Legionnaire Smith. His rival is the treacherous Sergeant LaFond. But when Smith is accused of being a traitor, selling the Legion out to the Arabs, Smith slowly starts to remember his past and who he was has everything to do with saving the French Foreign Legion.

The Everglades Horror by Hugh B. Cave originally published in the January 1937 issue of Thrilling Mystery. This is my first Cave story. I know of him, but had never read any of his works prior to this. Blasphemy, I know... The Everglades Horror is the story of one horrifying night for Ed Baker when his girlfriend goes missing in the swamp.

An excerpt:
"He slammed the brake down abruptly. Behind him in the darkness a man was screaming horribly. The high flat voice rode eerily through the night. Ed Baker flung the car door open and leaped out. Black mud clung to his boots as he ploughed past the machine and went stumbling down the road toward the screaming thing. But he couldn't see the thing. He guessed it must be a negro with who he had exchanged words only a moment before, but nothing in that Cimmerian dark was visible. Then suddenly there was something. It was not Leke Kendall. It was not human. It was a huge, ungainly mass of glowing vapor advancing sluggishly through the dark. The screams of terror seemed to be coming from a focal point in the murk toward which the uncanny monster was creeping."

Agents of Doom by Robert Leslie Bellem originally published in the December 1940 issue of Detective Novels Magazine. Bellem created popular hard boiled dick, Dan Turner which premiered in Spicy Detective magazine. He later wrote for the George Reeve Superman TV show as well as Perry Mason show, 77 Sunset Strip and others. Here he turns in a story about a falsely disgraced test pilot named Dan Luther that is blackmailed into delivering a squadron of bombers to America's enemies. Part of what I enjoyed about the story is that much of the action takes place within a few miles of my home. I also like how Luther gets himself out of the jam.

I also liked:

The Bull's-Eye Ace by Arch Whitehouse originally published in the February 1941 issue of Sky Aces. I liked this story, but it ends so suddenly I wondered if a page was missing. I am interested in more pulp stories of the air aces of the Great War.

Let Me Forget by Jean Francis Webb originally published in the November 1935 issue of Sweetheart Stories. I almost didn't read this as it is the "love story" of the issue, but it turned out to be a well written story of love lost and then almost found again.

She Herded Him Around by E. Hoffman Price from Spicy Western Stories February 1941 is about a cowboy that won't let women get the best of him until a particularly attractive and wily one does.

My favorite quote:
She wore a filmy garment over a lace paneled gown; the two garments together wouldn't have been enough to wad a shotgun.

All in all this issue is jam-packed with adventure from many genres of the Pulp Era. Editor John P. Gunnison has put together a great magazine. I just picked up the newest issue, #103 containing two tales of Ki-Gor, a Tarzanesque character. Until next time, keep reading and keep adventure alive!

Tannhäuser Tuesday - Hyenas and Apes, Oh My!

I am back from a near heart-attack inducing hard drive failure. But all my data was recovered and is now fully backed up. Take it from me, it is far cheaper to buy back up drives than to have a data recovery company get it back. Enough of the excuses, back to the main event.

Jackal's Hyenas

This is something new. A Character Sheet for a Special Object Token. My Mercenary, The Jackal, has a pair of trained hyenas as his Special Object. You can find the massive version here. Please note the Special Rules box.



I have also been reworking all of the Moeller's Hermetics cards with art versions instead of photo versions. Here are the Armored Apes, the Rustung Fallhammer.


As usual, I would love to hear your comments either here, or at the new and downgraded FFG website. I have been pondering whether to put each weeks announcement in its own thread or not, because I can't add new stuff to the first post of the thread. Adding a post a week adds clutter, but it will be much easier to find the new stuff.

I am getting closer to the end on this massive project (Moeller's Hermetics) and I am interested in what people would like to see in the next big project. I have a single hero to add to the Matriarchy that I will do when the Hermetics are done, but then I have some choices to make.

What would you like to see next?

1. Hellboy and the BPRD full faction all finished.
2. Eastern Dynasties or Rising Sun faction. Full of Kung Fu and eastern magic. Which name do you like better?
3. Creatures from beyond Time and Space.

Let me know your pick!

Farther down the road are Doc Savage and Company, because I have to paint the figures, and some other Pulp heroes.

Pulp of the Week - G-8 and his Battle Aces #1

This is the start of a new feature. Don't let the name fool you, there won't be one of these each week, but I will put them up from time to time.

G-8 and his BATTLE ACES

AN INTRODUCTION

Starting before the turn of the century, Argosy Magazine and Adventure Magazine led the way in popular fiction. Novels and short stories of all kinds filled pages of innumerable magazines on the racks. Then, in April, 1931 'The Shadow' hit. Followed by 'Doc Savage' in March of 1933. The era of the "Character Pulps" was underway and 'G-8 and his Battle Aces' joined the fray in October of 1933. There were many pulps, but 'G-8' remains one of the most popular after lasting 110 monthly issues.

G-8 was created in the years following the success of The Shadow and Doc Savage by writer Robert J. Hogan. There were 110 issues of "G-8 and his Battle Aces" published beginning in Oct. 1933. Hogan, a former pilot wrote all the G-8 novels and most if not all of the back-up stories. In addition, all of the covers were painted by Frederick Blakeslee. That is an unprecedented run.

G-8 is an American spy and flying ace during the Great War. His adventures mainly see him fighting the Germans under Kaiser Wilhelm II. He is a master spy; America's greatest and hated by the Germans for successful mission after mission. However - they have never seen his real face. He is fluent in German and with the help of his man-servant named Battle, a master of disguise. He is also a flying ace; one of the worlds greatest pilots. As far as we know, G-8 is his real name, we learn no other.



The G-8 adventures pit the man with no name against the Kaiser's most bizarre creations of super-science and the supernatural. G-8 fought a menagerie of bizarre villains: Herr Grun, an ape man; Man in Armor, a pilot in full armor plate that lead an army of corpses; Gorilla men led by Dr. Schlemmer; Herr Feuer, a firebug. There were also monsters like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. That list sounds like it could be an issue of Hellboy or a list of scenarios for Tannhäuser, AE WWII, or Shadows of the Third Reich.

I have read issues of the Shadow and more than half the issues of Doc Savage. For some reason I was never aware of G-8. Well that has changed. I will be putting the G-8 stories into my reading rotation.

The Bat Staffel - G-8 and his Battle Aces issue #1, Oct. 1933

staffel - Noun - German for 'squadron'

This premiere issue begins with G-8 already a master spy and the German's worst enemy. The story opens with a disguised G-8 intentionally getting captured in a bid to get to Herr Doktor Krueger, one of G-8s recurring villains. He is a mad scientist that creates a series of horrifying schemes to bring victory to Germany. This issue involves giant bats spraying a deadly gas over France. The gas dissolves its victim into a pile of dust. Krueger boasts to G-8 that an army of giant bats will breathe their deadly 'bat's breath' over all of France.

G-8 escapes Krueger's clutches and returns to his airfield with a new mission - to find Krueger's giant bat cave and stop the attack. G-8 recruits a pair of pilots that helped out when he was escaping Krueger's castle. He selects them to join his secret squadron.

The flying aces are Bull Martin and Nippy Weston, two Americans that stick with the master spy through the run of the series. Nippy is a short analytical pilot that dreams of being the next great stage magician. His plane is #13, showing that he believes you make your own luck and superstition shouldn't rule your life. Bull Martin is a former College All Star half-back. He is a big man and a fierce fighter. He fears no man, but he can be taken in by superstition. His Spad is #7 for good luck.

The story is a great mix of spy intrigue behind enemy lines, dogfights, shootouts, fist fights, and a ton of action. I quite enjoyed the story and am interested in reading more. The flying scenes are very well written; exciting and well described. The writer, Robert J. Hogan, makes it easy to keep track of the different planes and who is where in the battle. Not an easy task and he succeeds admirably. Additionally, G-8 and his men are distinct characters and their interplay is fun to read.

The mixture of war action and weird menace is very appealing to me and feels like a precursor to Hellboy, Tannhäuser, and the current crop of Weird War II games and fiction.

Needless to say, G-8 and his Battle Aces prevail, but not before Doktor Krueger escapes. There are 109 more stories and from what I've read, they only get weirder from here. Since much of this first novel sets up the series I am looking forward to a bit more story in subsequent issues.



Where can you find the G-8 novels? Vintage New Media has been re-publishing the run of pulp novels. They have selected issues available as PDFs. That is how I obtained this story. Some of the books were reprinted as paperbacks in the 1960's, but beware - there are different printings of #1 and and one of them is not the first issue.

I would like to thank Bill Mann for some information and for compiling his awesome G-8 and his Battle Aces Cover Gallery. Bill also publishes a line of Air War pulp reprints under his Age of Aces Books imprint.

© 2008 W. Peter Miller